London Marathon flop Mo Farah vows to bounce back after disappointing debut

MO FARAH wants another crack at the marathon despite being beaten out of sight on his debut in London.

Kenyan world record holder Wilson Kipsang won his second title in London[GETTY]

Farah, double Olympic and world champion, was never in contention to win the Virgin Money London Marathon yesterday and trailed in eighth, hurting and despondent.

He said the support of a massive crowd kept him going towards the end when he was in pain for the last eight miles.

Farah, 31, was four minutes behind winner Wilson Kipsang.

“It would have been good to have given back to those who came out with the British flags, cheering me,” said Farah.

“But I will be back and I will definitely do better. If I could come back in two weeks’ time I would. That’s who I am. “I’m not going to let it end like this.”

Farah will talk with his coach Alberto Salazar and his back-up team about what went wrong, but he took a beating in London.

The world’s elite were his opposition and in effect they said to Farah : Come and give us a go if you think you are good enough.

The advice from experienced men like Brendan Foster is for Farah, 31, to go back to the track for now, forget about the marathon, return to what he does best and give the marathon a second go in a few years time.

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I will be back and I will definitely do better. If I could come back in two weeks time I would

Mo Farah

Farah has not been beaten for 18 months on the track but has lost his last two races on the road. He admitted he was wrong not to run with the leading group, but instead stay with the second group of runners, a tactic that left him exposed and trailing.

But he is defiant that this will not, well, be the end of the road.

He is not used to this, never being in the race, never being in contention.

“I’m disappointed in terms of where I finished and my time. But if you don’t try you’re never going to know,” said Farah.

“I will be back, 100 per cent. I’m not going to finish on a down. I wanted to give it a try. This is London, my city, where I grew up so it would have been wrong to do any other marathon, but this was a tough field.

“You’ve got to make a sensible decision. I haven’t thought too much about it but in my heart I want to come back. I just don’t know when it’s going to be.

“No athlete wants to finish on low. I will do another marathon but I don’t know which one, when or where. “It could be in six months’ time or in a few years’ time. We’ll make that decision as a team.

“I dream of one day competing in London and doing well.”

Farah was never part of the leading group of eight ultra world class men out of which Kenyans Kipsang and Stanley Biwott broke at 20 miles.

Kipsang, the world record holder, then burned away with a 4.38 minute break four miles later for his second London victory in a course record 2:04.29.

40,000 runners took part in the London Marathon [GETTY]

For the whole race Farah travelled second class because he believed he would not be able to keep up with the world record pace of the first class elite.

But they kept widening the gap and Farah’s minimum target of Steve Jones’ 29-year-old British record (2:07.13) was not achieved as he finished in 2:08.21 .

As the record books were trawled for consolation it was discovered that the English record of 2:08.38 had gone.

It is doubtful whether Farah knew or even cared.

On a beautiful spring day, after months and months of training that a Marine would have been familiar with, Farah has some serious thinking to do.

Two years ago in London there were Olympic gold medals around Farah’s neck, his name surrounded by glory, but this time in the capital there was only pain and disappointment.

Farah says he will defend his 10,000m title at the Rio Games in two years, possibly the 5k gold as well, and before that there is the Commonwealth Games and European Championships this summer as possible diary dates .

This was the strongest field put together by the London marathon,” said Farah.

I have gone straight into the deep end- but that is what athletics is all about.”

It wasn’t a good day for debutants because Tirunesh Dibaba, one of the greats of women’s distance running, was third behind winner Edna Kiplagat. She didn’t say whether she will be back, Mo says he will.